Descriptive Epidemiology Of Acute, Overuse, Time-loss And Non-time-loss Upper Extremity Injuries In Collegiate Student Athletes

Abstract

Sports injury surveillance is increasingly documenting overuse and non-time-loss (NTL) injuries, as well as acute and time-loss (TL). Capturing time-loss (TL and NTL) and onset (acute and chronic), particularly for upper extremity injuries, may more accurately describe injury burden. PURPOSE: To describe the epidemiology of upper extremity injuries of acute and overuse onset, stratified by TL and NTL, in collegiate student athletes. METHODS: Electronic medical records from member institutions were migrated to a secure cloud service provider. De-identified injuries from student athletes who authorized their records to be used for research were provided from August 2017 to March 2020 for all sports, representing 351 men’s and 459 women’s team seasons. Quality assurance procedures occurred at the institution, conference, and research team levels. Upper extremity musculoskeletal injuries were identified by onset (acute or overuse) and stratified by time-lost (TL or NTL). Injury frequencies and mean number of injuries per team per season were calculated. RESULTS: Of the 3286 injuries, acute-NTL (n = 1278, 38.9%) and acute-TL (n = 1229, 37.4%) were most frequent and most frequent in males (acute-NTL n = 897, 27.3%; acute-TL 925, 28.1%). Women’s overuse-TL (n = 177, 5.4%) and overuse-NTL (n = 248, 7.5%) were more frequent than men (n = 165, 5.0%; n = 189, 5.8% respectively). Ligament sprain (n = 835, 25.4%) was the most frequent diagnosis in men and women for acute-TL and -NTL injuries, while tendinopathy (n = 240, 7.3%) was most frequent for overuse-TL and -NTL injuries. Football had the highest mean number of injuries per team per season for acute-TL and -NTL (13.5, 15.9), while men’s gymnastics was highest in overuse-TL and -NTL (1.7, 3.2). CONCLUSIONS: Overuse injuries represented 23.7% of the sample and were more frequent in women, though men’s teams had higher mean number of injuries per team per season. Overuse upper extremity injury burden exists in a variety of sports, underscoring the need for injury prevention programs. This project was supported by the Pac-12 Conference’s Student-Athlete Health and Well-Being Initiative. The content of this abstract is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the Pac-12 Conference, or its members.